Rough Topaz roads forcing residents’ hand

Topaz residents who've been waiting for the county to repair their streets have taken shovels into their own hands.

"The roads are atrocious, especially for walking," resident Catherine Fox said. "Busloads of tourists walk through the neighborhood from the casino, and the area is a haven of lawsuits waiting to happen."

Fox said residents have been filling in potholes with bags of asphalt in an effort to fix the roads.

She and her husband moved to the neighborhood of about 300 residents a year ago.

She said her husband spent $65 on asphalt to repair a hole in front of her house.

"We got six bags and barely made a dent in it," she said.

Recommended Stories For You

She pointed out that other portions of the county seem to be getting roadwork.

The neighborhood's roads were gravel until sometime in the early 1990s, according to County Transportation Engineering Manager Jon Erb.

That's when the county put down grindings, rolled and sealed them.

The county has scheduled a local roads workshop for Jan. 23.

Topaz Lake is one of the locations dependent on the county for its road maintenance, along with Johnson Lane and Foothill.

According to the county, there are 177.44 miles of paved road, 43.69 miles of roads with grindings and 14.15 miles of gravel roads.

The adopted budget includes $1.87 million for salaries, benefits, overhead, equipment cost, signals and lighting for the entire county outside of the districts and towns, Erb said.

"The county's road crew does maintain local roads that have been accepted by the county using funding from property and state gas tax," he said.

Erb said in April that generally includes ditch grading and pavement patching.

A proposal to establish an improvement district for those areas not already covered was recommended by a roads task force earlier this decade, but didn't come to fruition.